The Girardian Event and the Literary Event

Girardian philosophical and theological thinking is founded on events: mainly the two generic events of mimetic desire and the purifying sacrifice. However, in addition, there is more nuanced cognition of evental structures that becomes highlighted, particularly when engaging with literary texts through Girardian concepts. It is my intent here to probe deeply into Girard's evental layers through the analytic encounter with Alice Munro's short story “Runaway,” which clearly indicates the existence of “real victims” in the sense Girard describes it in the epigraph just shown, even though obviously Munro's victims are moved into the context of our times through the use of literature as a form of myth-making. We shall more closely examine the literary event as such and what it may mean in Munro's work, but then also bring relevant insights back into Girard's evental framework to ponder some conceptual timbres in his thinking about the scapegoat and revelation. In the Canadian author's short story we therefore focus on these interrelated topics of revelation and scapegoating in order to analyze them in close connection with Girard. The central claim is that Girard uses founding events to ground the generic aspects of the theory, but in addition the argument suggests that the engagement with Munro's short story reveals that the literary event “overflows” any theoretical appropriation of evental structures. Thus, the cognition of the event displays a hermeneutical circle that moves events back into narrativity, myth, and religion, out of which Girard once derived his central ideas.There are mainly three different aspects that need to be outlined here from the beginning, which constitute an organizing structure that is useful when exposing Munro's fiction to close analysis, namely, Christian revelation, anthropological revelation, and the capacity of events to generate new meaning through the underlying phenomenon of eventfulness. According to Bernard Perret, Girard has two central principles attached to his usage of the concept of “revelation”: When he speaks of “Christian revelation,” he gives this term its usual theological meaning: that of a self-revelation by God giving access to truths that human reason is unable to discover through its own forces. In addition to this first meaning, Girard on many occasions uses the word “revelation”—or “unveiling,” which is almost synonymous—in the sense of a discovery giving access to a rational understanding of anthropological facts.1This seemingly incompatible usage will be an important distinction when we move into the realm of contemporary fiction. Moreover, Girard also adds yet another aspect of the event that needs to be taken into consideration as well, and this is the third characteristic referred to above. Perret stresses that Girard and Christianity as a whole state “that all human existence is characterized by events creative of new meanings.”2 This last claim fits the dominion of creative fiction in a fertile way. As we shall see when we approach Munro's rather complex short story, we will have to engage with issues that are in line with Girard's theological thinking, but also with elements that problematize certain aspects of these phenomena. It should be mentioned that the Girard scholar Perret is mainly used in this analysis, since he provides a clear focus on aspects of Girardian thinking that are particularly relevant. There are references directly to Girard's writing mainly in the notes.In order to set up a meaningful dialogue, we need to first ponder the literary event per se, partly since it is such a broad term but also since not all literary events can be seen as revelatory in the theological sense. I here outline a set of possible principles entirely based on the work by Ilai Rowner. These philosophical aspects of the literary event will help us move toward thinking specifically about literature, but then also to relate back to conspicuous Girardian themes. The following are my paraphrases of the first four interwoven principles in Rowner's conceptual structure: First Principle. The literary event occupies an unstable in-between position between the corporeal and the textual.Second Principle. The phenomenological suspension of judgment (or actually the suspension of the ‘natural attitude’). This is done in order for the reader to follow along with the work's unique movement.Third Principle. Attention to how the work ‘strikes’ affectively (before coding and conceptualizing).Fourth Principle. The selection of significant parts or fragments of the text that may be regarded as vaster than the whole work, when observed in isolation. These parts attract attention in the form of lacunae or hiatuses. The edges and sharp angles of these ‘holes’ should haunt the reader long after the reading. In fact, the aftermath of the reading is an immensely important part of the reading.3As may be deduced from the introduction of these principles, this way of thinking about the literary event obviously outlines a methodology for reading, or at least for academic rereading. We also see that Rowner pushes the literary event toward a certain writerly reader-stance, in the Barthesian sense, that is, to be sensitive to where the event will take the reader, without being indifferent or overly gullible. The following four principles build on the first ones, again in my paraphrases.These principles should be regarded as a backdrop to the analysis of “Runaway,” and it is of course not possible to do all of these aspects of the literary event justice in this short paper. However, it is fully feasible to use the short story to give examples of some of the points. In order to present the narrative in a reasonable way within the cognition of the literary event, we must first introduce a commonsensical overview of the story at hand to contextualize these topics. This summary is also presented in order to be able to relate to Girard's evental structures of mimetic desire and revelation, and even more specifically to situate the appearance of the scapegoat in a literary as well as in a theoretical/theological framework.The spatiotemporal setting is the countryside in the vicinities of Toronto roughly in contemporary times. Clark and Carla live in a house near the elderly woman Sylvia's place. Sylvia's husband, the poet Leon, has passed away when the narrative begins, but there are analepses to that time as well. Central in the story is a fiction that Carla has made up, which stipulates that Leon made sexual advances when Carla worked in the house helping Sylvia out. This fiction becomes an erotic zest in Carla and Clark's relationship. However, after Leon passes away, Clark gets it into his head that they should blackmail the old woman by threatening to reveal Leon's advances to the public realm. In addition, the little goat Flora—which has been particularly emotionally tied to Carla—is one of the runaways of the narrative. When the reader joins this rural happening, Flora is already missing, but of course the goat eventually gets a very central role through its return, which constitutes the event that we in particular shall look more closely at. Fittingly for a Girardian analysis, the central trio of characters and the goat make up a number of triangular structures of desires. Gianfranca Balestra has outlined these triads in a thorough and clear way, which in all is a structural pattern she uncovers under the umbrella of direct references to Girard's Violence and the Sacred (1977) and The Scapegoat (1986): A first triangle, . . . is constituted by Carla, Clark and Flora, the surrogate child desiring the father and then transferring her affection to the mother. Husband and wife are momentarily united by sharing this manifestation of love.A second triangle is formed by Carla, Clark, and Leon, where the woman constructs a tale of sexual advances on the part of Leon in order to provoke a mimetic desire in Clark, and her lie succeeds in sexually arousing him.A third triangle is represented by Carla, Sylvia, and Clark, where Sylvia's attention for Carla provokes Clark's jealousy. Sylvia and Clark become rivals for the possession of Carla, causing conflict and potential violence in the man.A fourth triangle is represented by Sylvia, Clark, and Flora at the moment of the goat's apparition. Flora comes back after a mysterious absence, transfigured in a sort of sacred entity, infused with the supernatural, and apparently bearer of the prodigious power of bringing peace between the two rivals. However, this does not satisfy Clark's need for power, the ritual sacrifice is not complete, and he needs to eliminate Flora in order to reestablish order and regeneration.5If we regard the short story as a specific anatomy of events, even in terms of a basic plot structure, we realize that the return of Flora described in triangle four is the climax and the energizing conundrum that potentially will follow the reader post reading, so to speak. At this point in the narrative, Clark has come to Sylvia's house late in the evening and he is stoked up by the fact that Sylvia has had a part in Carla's attempted but failed escape from the marriage; hence, we also realize that Carla and Flora are each other's mirror images, or possibly the twin scapegoats referred to in Leviticus in the Bible.The tension of possible male violence has been built up throughout the narrative, and this is further accentuated here by the female character's vulnerability in not being fully dressed. Clark has come to Sylvia to make clear to her that Carla is back where she belongs, in the power and care of the patriarch. This is the height of potential violence, rivalry, and narratological demand for a denouement. Therefore, the effect of the arrival of the goat becomes almost cliché-like, but the immanent ambiguity of the event as such is what establishes its demand for closer analysis.The revelation seems to hover in between Girard's two different usages of the concept of revelation that have been stressed by Perret (religious as well as something open for rational anthropological understanding and awareness). Before moving into more elaborate interpretations of this happening in terms of the literary event and revelation, we need to dissect the diction very carefully. It is not just the sense of ambiguity; it is also a matter of exactly how this ambiguity makes itself manifest.First of all, the itself is a phenomenon that the is an form and what is a form of the and how can these be In a way, displays the of as being a of the corporeal and or or It is to and without this in-between first which at first as and our thinking in the of of with the his head but also the of the of his the revelation of the and of in a event that is the founding event of Christianity as a However, the happening of the event is that of which makes clear that the is at work, which Rowner stresses in of his principles of the literary the seems but at the time it is but it is indicates some form of just attention to the but the word also or even the The is seen as a of and but it is also used in philosophical as an of that do not have a in the “real When ponder the of the as a for of the human and This also attention to a philosophical I do not have I not then this This is an aspect of ambiguity that again and again in her The climax of this event is that the revelation is when it becomes and and here not The goat itself out of the of as itself being a the of its return after been or even more as its for the rather fact that there is something rather than This back to Rowner's fourth a or with almost then be in It is for one we first with the revelation in Girardian there are mainly two that are we have the of the and Perret the of as a for something that can be as a of a certain state of In a way, we can that itself and does not since there is to the of or and therefore the is as a we realize that the of this revelation the Christian sacrifice to all The event itself makes of the scapegoat which to Girard is one of the to at least the violence of mimetic desire and Perret very this up in connection to his of revelation and Girardian terms by appearance of the goat this revelation. the of the narrative, appearance has the effect of the and the can be seen as a of the of on the but this is also with a revelation that has the of The literary event in clearly a literary form for how the any seemingly However, one Munro's short story does not with this The aspects of the narrative in the Flora comes back to Clark's and Carla's Carla out about the appearance in a from potentially for Clark, what has to the little a certain the The of the scapegoat to something sacred should come after the ritual violence of or In the narrative, Carla that Clark must have Flora, but there is of that in the narrative. the of Clark's of Flora as sharp that had in but that she to live to the in However, she about the lie or at least to her own of the gives the reader a to the different layers up in this we should with the Girardian the appearance of the goat has revelatory aspects and it and at least one of the desires. Clark, and for Sylvia, the tension of is Sylvia moves into and the on with the partly order However, the seems to work fully for Carla, the of will haunt and a of is not possible with this These give the reader a that does not just the scapegoat uses but also giving it a with an of male violence, and male the scapegoat should be in a of and its should come with its being This pattern is in the addition, on the reader the is also particularly in terms of how Girard can be and in this we again to Bernard Perret, we can make of his on a particular aspect of the Girardian revelation, namely, the of the It is this evental that the Carla is but that comes into an even to the Perret The of makes it possible to a . with the of the meaningful a the is a of revelation, seen as a of access to a point of at in this way, the by Girard to make structure also in with the aspect of The potentially that comes with certain events the of and In Christian terms this is made in the of the the of the have to and the of events up to the and of This is also what Perret attention to in Girard's meaning in the uses of the concept of The sacrifice of also comes with the of about the which the and the of violence that from mimetic This is what Perret to when he out that for Girard also rational understanding of anthropological the of the reader, there may be an into the of the even more of that being to Carla, which the reader may as an The here also with Girard's by of violence and of but also the of through such The of seems to the but the of is in terms of the of that Carla of Clark's in terms of evental thinking about literature, this is not The is with that the revelation and of the The is also on the since the scapegoat is seen as a or a in human but in the narrative it is an This ambiguity makes it to how may be Girard here and how may be the We need to look more closely at to the here is that this sacrifice two which also to the narrative in terms of Flora and goat should be and the should be set in the as described in we then look closely at the of the narrative, we see that the ambiguity is by the fact that Carla does not what has to Therefore, it is not which one of the twin is we to an Flora has been Carla is the goat set all the and Flora is the goat set Carla is then It since what is clear is that Carla is not way, but in the and in a of Girard to the we can also some The literary event in the anthropological that Girard is a aspect of of the of the scapegoat is the to scapegoating as an of human However, Girard's thinking also clearly the of violence, which the as the Perret on this in Girard's theological more aspects of the evental here when we to as a literary set of literary what Girard's and theological structures and how literature and can be one the open of is with the within Girard's The is how there is in of the evental an analytic it is that the aspect has a in Munro's In our what literature can do is to about such a as human the whole of Girard's philosophical can be to out of the of and as we can see as just the scapegoat to the of its its The power of literature is to be able to the reader to and to again what she she had already it is that we live in the of in the way that has attention to then literature itself has a role to in its as an to human The literary event does two It attention to the aspects of in and it potentially of the theological of human is sacred of move toward some form of we may that we have not the of what the literary event is or may be per Rowner provides some but we the by of Girardian The theological of Girardian become very clear when through the literary As and use founding events, so does A of thinking these of founding events, and as with within different its is by its and us to the literary event once more in to the narrative. events may be seen as the of the literary text and of any of narrative. Therefore, it is very to not of the event as something with a beginning, a and an a specific event may Moreover, it be rather to of a plot entirely from many and have to the event from the on as had does not but in are with we move that we must of a form of event that or the event in a more commonsensical and narratological way. us an event, or actually events, from into such The following is through Carla and it the that constitute the a way, we that as the of an event is with as the event has and has been by the of First seen as a of the it makes the of It his and how it for and in for Carla as well. This potential male violence as a all through the narrative, and it the between Sylvia and Clark the revelatory return of the goat it is possible to There is way out of the fact that literary texts as The reading the or of that in the of reading. in they partly as phenomena. Therefore, we can along with and as be another way of that even in engaging with literary texts we engage with The creative of the when the has done her the creative of the text in the creative of the reader potentially as eventfulness. The with Clark are presented as already in the but for the reader, the is as the events have not The of this on all following there be events in the sense of that concept and there be literature or fiction the event it is The in the to the by the reason the woman had to the the of for which the woman be and she is with Clark obviously does not that argument and therefore with a even in events this one is it entirely what is happening and what will Moreover, in the the reader will be able to is at in the close to or how away from the child the actually be able to come closer to some form of about the literary event, we need to a theoretical It seems to of as events, as and not as or The is, there is but rather a In addition, even in the layers of what seems to be or plot in the literary there a that be uses and to must be a of what may be and of so that the event can be through the of the stressed this between the event and the The event, he must be in the of a is event, to be that is not and by its own The or the of the event is the and form of the of This of the event the form of to the of the to the of the the possible of the such a the phenomenon of the the of this being in its is not once and for all, but rather it is into the event of that very is an each is into a that it is and has to is also in its it has The its The of the of is not a narratological phenomenon in It displays the of the as as it be The aspect of this is that certain of literary texts can attention to the event and even to that is, the happening of events in the way they actually as in we return to the revelation of the goat Flora that we some time we that it to the event as The of it as in one of Rowner's principles, but it also in two as it back in time toward and texts just reveals that it is a the event as close as possible to in literary It also with Girard's of the of the sacrifice and the at least of the the event, the of the event is but it be and as what we is the of an This at the of the phenomenon of the this even more we may of the roughly into three there are and these are the in which the concept of that is, as there are in which there is a between concept and there are in which the are and these are the of so the and are actually The phenomenon displays eventfulness. In certain of the happening of appearance in of Clark and Sylvia, we sense that the phenomenon to what in conceptual an Clark and are a goat from The literary event can then be seen as the event of the the event of eventfulness. The events in Girard's can help us to certain of eventfulness. In many that at any event, and to be it is to the literary at the literary However, this does not mean that Girardian thinking is in any way It to that as is something that be or when engaging with literary texts and potentially that the which the of Girard's of the scapegoat and the of the structures of mimetic back to Rowner's principles, we should be able to see how the four last to Munro's short We look at them in terms of another little in can be seen as an important event and as an of the that Rowner a for Clark when Carla has away, she have I will be all Sylvia this as an of a in but for the reader to this may be something it with the reader as an an event of the we have seen how the of aspects of the Girardian events as creative in and of This has become clear when through of the concept of revelation from Girard's We have also seen that literature of in which any commonsensical understanding of events in a literary The of then the back to Girardian and new about or This hermeneutical does not in any way the fact that the goat Flora through the and in a way it to

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